And, from an interaction between the wizard, Gandalf, to Frodo, as he prepared for his ministry of ring-bearer to Middle Earth:

"I am not made for perilous quests," cried Frodo. "I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?"

"Such questions cannot be answered," said Gandalf. "You may be sure that it was not not for any merit that others do not possess; not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have."

(J.R.R. Tolkien)

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Eugene Peterson comments:

If we look at ourselves and are absolutely honest, we are always inadequate. Of course, we are not always honest. We budge and cheat on the tests. We cover up a bit here; we bluff a bit there. We present to be more sure than we are.

Life, in fact, is too much for us.

This business of living in awareness and response to God, in attentive love to the people with us, and in reverent appreciation of the world round about exceeds our capacities. We aren't smart enough; we don't have enough energy; we can't concentrate adequately. We are apathetic, slouching and slovenly. Not all the time, to be sure. We have spurts of love, passionate risks of faith, impressive episodes of courageous caring. But then we slip back into indolence or greed...

It is not our feelings that determine our level of participation in life, nor our experience that qualifies us for what we will do and be; it is what God decides about us.

God does not send us into the dangerous and exacting life of faith because we are qualified; he chooses us in order to qualify us for what he wants us to be and do...

(From Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at its Best)

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If you are going follow in the way of Jesus, living life at its best, you must get the order down rightly, and you must do so now. It is not that you are qualified. You are not. You are supremely inadequate. So be of good cheer! For you have been chosen, and the Father, by the work accomplished through the Son, and by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, will qualify and make you adequate to the good works that he has created for you before the foundations of the world, that you might walk in them.

Matthew Molesky

Senior Pastor

Matthew Molesky serves as Senior Pastor for Calvary. Prior to becoming a pastor, he worked in the corporate world for twelve years, mainly in Minneapolis, MN. In 1998, he began to discern a call from God into full-time ministry. He spent almost seven years at Bethlehem Baptist Church, three of those as an apprentice of Pastor Tom Steller and Pastor John Piper. He then spent over two years in Orlando, as a pastor with Gregg Heinsch, helping launch a new church and a training institute for church planters, which was part of a Converge Worldwide church-planting initiative.